Hey Jeff, Where do logos come from?

They come from the logo stork, of course, duh!

If you’re like many business owners you sometimes wonder, “why should I pay a designer to create my logo, I can do it myself”. Well, if you can’t answer the title question in detail and with confidence then you definitely shouldn’t try this yourself. In this post I’m gonna break down the process of creating a logo and forever dispell the myth of the logo stork.

First we start with you, the customer. I need to know about you, about your company, your target audience, your competition, and your thoughts on their logos. We figure all of this out by requesting that you complete a questionnaire filled with questions about all of the above. Once this questionnaire is returned filled out, I study the answers and take detailed notes with my own comments. These notes are the foundation of the design process.

Once we get this questionnaire completed and the notes on file, next we work on the strategy. How is the logo gonna be used, is it gonna be energetic or static, should it contain an icon or just text, if there’s an icon is it to be literal or abstract, background or not, outline or not. These are just a few of the questions I’ll ask myself before I even begin to work on your new identity.

The next step in the process of creating the image that your customers will remember and associate with your business forever is to get out a pencil, an eraser, and paper and get to sketching. Even though you only need one logo, I’ll sketch about 25 ideas to begin the brainstorming process. Of these 25 sketches, most of them will suck but they will give me the start that I need to create the voice of your company.

After we get these sketches completed and we know how we want the logo to feel, I start collecting data. That data includes typefaces/fonts, images, colors, and shapes. All of this data is inspiration, not actual assets of your design.

Once the data is collected then I open my Adobe apps and start designing. I piece different parts of the different sketches together with the fonts, icons, and freestyle a little to make it work. The first designs will be created in black and white to assure that the design is simple enough to be used over many different mediums including those that require a monotone design. Once I get a few successful designs in monotone, then I’ll add the colors. Colors, like the fonts aren’t just added for aesthetic reasons but are instead purposefully selected for the mood of the design and the psychology of the colors.

From here, the customer will receive 3 proofs of which you will choose the one that mostly identifies with the message you’re trying to convey with your logo and you will inform me of any revisions that need to be made. Once the revisions are completed then you’ll get your new logo in every format that you’ll ever need it for.

Now knowing how extensive the process of creation is, you should now understand that there is no logo stork and you should also understand why it’s important to hire a professional to design the identity of your business.